Stay on target

The Pax line of vapes have something of a reputation. They are the luxury-ish brand everyone, and their dog has heard of. And that’s not without reason. These folks make a damned fine vape. The Pax 2 was the real showstopper. It was one of the first herb vapes that was dignified. It had phenomenal build quality and offered a great, entertaining, and simple experience. Not perfect, by any means, but a solid outing.

And now we have the Pax 3. And it’s basically the same thing. And that’s wonderful. Of course, there are some new additions. The Pax 3 can handle concentrates as well as herbs, for example. It’s got an app and comes with a few more bells and whistles, but it’s essentially the same tried, and true vape everyone knows and loves.

There’s nothing wrong with an incremental upgrade. If you have a Pax 2 and you’re fine with it, you can stop reading and keep on toking until your little buddy breaks down. For everyone else, let me tell you about one of the most pleasant vapes around. It’s got a couple of knocks, but it’s never a bad choice.

The first thing to know about the Pax is that it’s small. About an inch square by four three inches and change long. It’s also super easy to use. Simply tap the top button once, and the device hums to life and gets to work heating up your loaded material. You can immediately shift into temperature selection with a long-press and then cycle through setting with a single press before back to heating with a long.

It’s so straightforward, so easy to use it’s a wonder why anyone bothers doing anything else, and no wonder that so many settle on these things as their first serious vapes. Now, of course, the more complex mechanisms keep you from accidentally turning the thing on and wasting herb, but the Pax has a brilliantly simple solution — a concave button. It’s much less likely to be accidentally pressed if it’s an indent. That’s just smart engineering.

Similarly, the oven uses a simple magnetic lid. It also comes in two sizes, so you can select a heavy or light session — if you don’t want to waste any material. The sharp design ideas run throughout the product, with one major exception — the vapor path. The over sits on the opposite side of the vape. Okay, that’s normal, fine whatever. The thin tube that carries the vapor though is not only a little tough to get to — being straight through the center — it can be tough to clean. I and a couple of others I’ve known have had problems where material can get lodged in the path — clogging the whole thing and wasting the material for your session.

It can be avoided somewhat by making sure you pack your herb tightly without overdoing it, but that’s not a surefire fix, and I still had some problems.

That aside, everything about this thing is damned solid.

For the time being, Vapeworld has the Pax 3 for $275 with free shipping — about what you’d pay for the Firefly 2 or the Davinci IQ, all three top-end machines suited for different folks.

Pros

Excellent Build Quality
Great Feature Set
Pleasant Experience

Cons

Obnoxiosly tough to clean sometimes
Can get weirdly messy on its own — even with precaution

Bottom line

The Pax 3 is an all-around solid vape. At this price range, I’d consider your options and compare for your use case, but it’s almost impossible to be disappointed in this machine.